The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors and connectivity to enable it to achieve greater value and service by the exchange of data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices. Each “thing” is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system and has the capacity to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure.
Enterprise IoT platforms that include a wide variety of devices, device capabilities, communication idiosyncrasies and other disparities can present device management complications (they can present a disparate profile of capabilities, protocols, communications, APIs etc.). Moreover, limitations of the capabilities possessed by individual IoT devices limit application development for them.
Mobile virtualization is hardware virtualization on a mobile phone or other connected wireless device. Virtualization enables multiple operating systems or virtual machines to run simultaneously on a mobile phone or other connected wireless device. A hypervisor creates secure separation between the underlying hardware and the software that runs on top of it. Virtualization technology has been conventionally used in conjunction with data servers and personal computers.
Some mobile virtualization approaches include cloud-hosted platforms that aim to simulate large numbers of mobile end-points. However, applications for the mobile end-points whose execution include tasks that are resource intensive can't be used where the resource capability of the mobile device end-points is limited or otherwise insufficient to execute the applications. Accordingly, a significant shortcoming of conventional virtualization approaches is the inherent limitations on the types of applications that can be developed using those approaches.